The Alternative Version
by DixonVixen93
Summary: Everyone had their own reactions to the events of 'Out of Gas'. In this version, River has a talk with all of the members of Serenity to help them cope. Includes Alternative Ending and Events not shown on the episode itself. Including Rayne.


**Hey everyone! I have a new story in the 'verse, this goes mostly just how 'Out of Gas' went but I have added Rayne into the mix, and added an alternative ending. **

**I do not own Firefly.**

**Enjoy the feature presentation!**

The day that started out promising, turned into a disaster in minutes. During one of River's lucid days, her mental state started to deteriorate once she heard the voices. The voices that were deep of regret and fear. All of them were feeling some form of it, no matter how they wouldn't admit it. Even Serenity had her own sorrows, according to the resident genius. The ship was broken, she had failed her crew, her family. Just like Mal felt, he was afraid for his crew, which is why he wants to separate the crew, to keep them safe.

Simon felt regret that he hasn't told Kaylee how he felt, all while this guilt pang his heart of how this is all happening on his birthday.

Inara, the normally calm and collected one, couldn't keep her brain together, River noted. The companion was fearful of what Mal would do, and of what would happen to the rest of them.

Shepherd Book was taking the time to pray to his god more than ever at this moment. River didn't really think religion made sense, there were so many holes. She wanted to know why this man held on to something their own way.

Kaylee, the cheerful mechanic, wasn't so cheerful after she found out there was something wrong with Serenity. The ship was like Kaylee and Wash's baby, they made sure he was up to date and flying properly, but, with every child, it can never be in 100% health. River didn't know what it was like, but, from Kaylee's thoughts, it made the genius not want to listen anymore.

Wash was worried he was he was going to lose his home and everyone in it. He wasn't much for voicing his opinion unless it was for a right reason. When he went off on Mal, it was because of Zoë, he couldn't stand the fact that he could lose her.

River saved Jayne's thoughts for last. The reason being, he was so fascinating; 'save the best for last' rang in the reader's mind. Jayne was upfront with a lot of things, but the things about River are not true, she would like to know why he insists going on with the lies, if they die in ten hours, ten minutes, or even ten seconds from now, it still wont take her attention away from the questions at hand. Jayne was afraid to die just as much as any other member of this boat, which is expected. What surprised River the most was that he also worried for her. He thought that about how she must have been treated to make her all 'moon-brainy' as Jayne would tend to call her, and it made him feel sorry for her, going through all of that and then the situation now, it made him see her in a much brighter light. Of course, the minute he knew what he was thinking about, he wished he never brought it up in his head.

***Firefly* **

Once they were all together again, bundled up from the cold, River sat next to Jayne, she noted he tried not to look at her. When she read his mind, he was trying to convince himself just how wrong that would be.

River could've spoke up right at that moment, only that was when Mal came in. The life support aboard Serenity was failing. The captain ordered 4 people to a spare shuttle, excluding himself. She could not accompany Jayne, this upset the genius.

Everyone disagreed for Mal to stay behind, but even Inara couldn't tell himself otherwise. River could hear the companion crying inside, that too made her upset.

With River following Simon and Wash carrying Zoë on a stretcher. She tried to get any last thoughts in that she could, especially from Jayne. Unfortunately she heard nothing, disappointed, the reader sat down in a huff and tried to think of what had happened earlier.

***Firefly* **

Everyone was dealing with the stress in their own ways.

_Book was silently looking over his bible, sending out silent prayers. Or this is how he had been when River came to see him._

_The reader peeked around the corner and said "Don't be afraid."_

_Shepherd looked at the girl and she continued; "That's what is says, don't be afraid."_

"_Yes." Book nodded._

"_But you are afraid." River insightfully added._

"_Yes." He agreed once more, then looked back down at the book in his hands._

"_You're afraid that we are going to run out of air. That we will die gasping, but we wont, that's not going to happen." She paused for a short moment, making the Preacher believe she was being positive, until she said; "We'll freeze to death first." With that being said, she slunk off towards the next victim._

The reader smiled to herself at that memory. She was just trying to make conversation during the rough time.

_River then walked into the infirmary where Simon, Inara, Wash and a sleeping Zoë were. The reader came up to Zoë's body and looked down at her. She placed a small and on her shoulder and smiled to herself._

_Simon, Inara, and Wash were standing near-by, talking. River had came in so quietly, they didn't notice her in there._

"_Do you think Zoë will regain consciousness soon?" Wash asked._

_Simon sighed; "It's hard to say. Could be in hours, minutes, maybe even days, the human body-"_

"_She'll be ok." River spoke, causing everyone to look over at her._

"_Mei-mei, you shouldn't be in here. Its no need for you to be in here just to get upset." Simon said._

_River rolled her eyes; "Simon, it's ok. Zoë is ok, she's just lost in the endless night, her star is still shining bright though."_

"_Is that a good thing?" Wash asked._

"_I honestly do not know." Simon paused to put his arm around his little sister and guide her to where they were._

_River squirmed a little; "I speak the truth Simon." she said in a small voice. The reader then yanked herself from her brother's arms and fled out of the room._

Thinking about that made River frown. Simon never really believed anything she tried to tell him. He thinks it's some gibberish babble.

_The genius went to see Mal and Kaylee in the engine room next. The mechanic was close to tears talking about Serenity._

"_No more tears lil Kaylee. We've got to try and work on the problem." Mal said._

"_There aint nothing to work on. The engine wont move, and the catalyzer's broke. There's nothin' we can do Capt'n." Kaylee said, uncharacteristically down._

"_There's somethin'." Mal said, turning around and walking out of the engine room. He came across River on his way out, the Capt'n just looked at he resident genius once and didn't question her sudden appearance._

_Kaylee sat down next to the engine and looked at it up and down, seeing if she could do anything else. Her mind was traveling miles and miles away._

"_Hi Kaylee." Called River from behind._

_The mechanic spun around in surprise; "Hey Riv." she said solemnly._

"_Serenity will reign again. Nothing can stop her." River said running her fingers across the border of the engine._

"_You think so?" Kaylee chirped up and asked._

_River nodded; "She has her family to keep her strong."_

_Kaylee may not have understood River's comments before, but she was starting top understand now._

"_We just have to wait." River said with a ghost of a smile, she turned around on her heels to walk away._

River gave Kaylee hope, which made her feel like she did a good thing.

_Then there was the best memory of all for River. She had visited all but one called Jayne Cobb._

_When she did visit Jayne, she could sense his fear just like anyone else's._

"_Hello Jayne." she greeted._

"_Get outa 'ere moon-brain, talkin' uses up the air, I wanna breathe if ya didn't know." Jayne said._

"_We'll keep breathing, we'll keep living." River said._

"_Not if ya keep on talkin', now git!" Jayne said turning away from River._

_River moved in front of Jayne, to which he groaned; "She's not going anywhere." the reader added._

"_Fine but don't let anyone know I let ya stay in here." Jayne said._

"_Wont say a word." River said._

_Jayne was silent. Even River herself was silent, she hadn't realized the merc would let her stay in there with him._

_In the room with anyone else, River felt like she couldn't control herself, even when she was with Simon, he helped a little, but he worried too much. With Jayne, she felt anchored, like nothing could harm her._

"_She likes being here." River said in a soft voice._

"_Yeah well, as long as you don't go moony, ya aint half bad yourself." Jayne admitted._

_River smiled and sat on the floor by the mercenary's feet._

_He looked down at her, he could tell her to scram, that all of them close stuff was stealing the air away, but that would be too mean, she really wasn't all that bad. River then leaned her face into Jayne's leg, he noticed she was shivering._

_The temperature of the ship was decreasing by the minute, the merc took a blanket and handed it to River; "Don't want ya getting cold."_

_The reader smiled and wrapped herself in the blanket he handed her. She went back to her position leaning on his leg again, and they were silenced once more._

_Pretty soon, Mal called the whole crew to meet up, that they had business to discuss._

_River linked her arm through Jayne's as they went to where the crew was, reluctantly, she let go before anyone could see, which was a relief to Jayne. He was glad the girl liked him an all, but he needed time to plan his funeral before he said anything._

Now here she was, with Simon, Wash, and a dormant Zoë. River spent most of her time watching Zoë, waiting for the sun to rise over the horizon in Zoë's state of mind.

Simon watched River, the doctor deeply worried about his sister's intuitive moments, but when she said; "She will awaken now." Simon knew he shouldn't doubt her anymore as what she said was true.

Zoë awoke just as River said that. The warrior woman was surrounded in a second by Simon, and Wash was frantically looking back to make sure she was ok.

"Zoë! Are you ok sweetie?" Wash called.

"I'm ok, but, where are we?" Zoë asked.

"The captain sent 4 of us each of a different shuttle. Whoever reaches help first, we'll tell them about Serenity." Simon responded.

"4 and 4 is…. Where is the Captain?" Zoë asked in a firm tone.

"He stayed behind." Simon said.

"Well let's go back for him. He would do the same for us if we decided to do something like this." Zoë said.

Wash did what his wife told him and changed course back to Serenity.

It was a very good thing they went back. If they hadn't, Mal definitely wouldn't be living anymore. When they found him he was on the brink of death. Finally he was brought back to reality, he then realized the crew he had was his family, and they would always come back, no matter what the reason.

While the rest of the crew went about their own business aboard the ship, River paddled around to find Jayne. He was in the kitchen area on his way to his bunk.

"Back at home again." River called.

Jayne stopped and looked back at the girl; "Yep, whatcha want girl?"

River walked up to the mercenary; "Nothing in particular, just wanted to see you."

"Yer a strange one, but I guess I like you that way." Jayne said.

Jayne thought he and River were the only ones to hear their conversation, but he was wrong. Inara and Kaylee were on their way to get Mal a glass of water when they heard that last little bit, they stopped dead in their tracks and listened from around the corner, Kaylee leaning over Inara to get a better listen as they weren't talking very loud.

River had smiled gently. She knew that they had listeners, but the reader didn't think to tell Jayne; "She likes you too."

The mercenary grumbled uncomfortably, he never was one for confession, River knew it. She placed one finger over his mouth and tapped it lightly; "She knows you are uncomfortable, it'll be ok, I can wait." River replaced her finger with her lips in a short kiss, it wasn't too short, but it did only last for about a minute.

Kaylee and Inara's eyes both widened when they heard their contact break over and over again. The two girls looked at each other and finally moved to peek around the corner, their thoughts were confirmed when they saw them separate for a moment and then Jayne leaned down to kiss River again.

Unbeknownst to Inara and Kaylee, Simon came up from behind them and asked; "What are we looking at?"

They turned around and tried to keep a cool composure; "Hi Simon!" Kaylee chirped. Inara smiled before saying; "Kaylee was just showing me something."

"It's nothin' special." Kaylee said once Simon looked at her.

Simon nodded once before saying; "Um have either of you seen my sister?"

The two girls froze and then, as if one cue, River popped up on them all unexpectedly.

"You wanted to see me Simon?" she asked.

Simon blinked at the vastness of her appearance; "Are you doing ok, _mei-mei_?"

"Yes." River smiled. She really was just dine. When she had heard her brother's voice, she sent Jayne off with a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Kaylee and Inara had to hand it to River, she knew how to act things off the right way.

"Well, maybe you should lay down, its been a busy day." Simon suggested.

River shared a looked with her brother for a moment, she nodded and turned around, heading for her room.

Simon sighed and then turned to the mechanic and companion; "I believe I shall check in on the captain once more and turn in myself. Goodnight ladies."

"G'night." Kaylee grinned.

"Goodnight Simon." Inara said with a smile plastered on her own face.

They both watched as Simon headed off into the other direction. Once he was out of sight, their talk began.

"Oh my gosh that was so _swai! _Did you see the way Jayne looked at her? I mean I never woulda thought-" Kaylee started when Inara added; "It was very sweet but unexpected."

"I know! I really wonder how long this has been goin' on." Kaylee wondered aloud.

"It doesn't seem like it has been going on a while, they both seem to be unsure, so it must be new." Inara said.

Kaylee nodded then frowned; "Capt'n wont like it though."

"No and neither will Simon." Inara added.

Kaylee looked down and chewed at her lip as she thought. Inara just waited for the mechanic to reply.

"Simon'll flip around this boat faster then whole 'verse could take a breath." Kaylee finally said.

"I would imagine so, if the two of them have feeling for each other;"

"Which obviously they do." Kaylee finished for her.

Inara nodded; "No one should keep them from one another if that if truly what they want."

"If anyone tries, we'll have to do somethin' bout it, step in a bit." Kaylee said.

"We will have our work cut out for us, considering the source, but it will be for the best." Inara continued.

The two began to walk to their separate rooms as it was getting late at night.

This day definitely was wacky for the crew aboard Serenity, but, they all got through it, somehow.

**Okayz so I would really want to know what you guys thought, please review.**


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